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The Bay of Fundy was formed millions of years ago in a combination of the continental shift and the movement of the glaciers. The Bay began as a rift valley, which is a crack in the earth's crust formed when the African landmass pulled free of North America to create the Atlantic Ocean. Here you can see some of the oldest visible rock on earth. Much of the rock along the bay is sandstone. The strong tides have also carved the bizarre rock formations including those at The Hopewell Rocks. It's estimated that the tides nearly equal the 24-hour flow of all the rivers on the planet. Our highest tides are created because of the funnel shape of the Bay of Fundy combined with the gravitational pull of the sun and moon, pulling in one hundred of billion tonnes of water each day . From low to high tide, the vertical difference can range up to 48 feet. In a twenty four hour period we have at least one High & Low tide. For tide times at the Hopewell Rocks, click here. The tides form tidal bores, which look like a wave travelling against the flow of the river. The Albert County region has some of the most scenic vistas of the Bay in New Brunswick as well as being one of the most accessible viewing areas for marine life in the world. The Bay is also the feeding and mating ground of the rare right whale.
In mid-summer, the inter-tidal mud flats fill with mud shrimp, which provide a crucial source of food for hundreds of thousands of migrating shorebirds. Mary's Point Shorebird Reserve is a major stopping point in the Sandpiper migration where you can see thousands of these tiny birds feeding on the beach area. The wetland supports the largest numbers of mixed species of shoreline birds during fall migration in all of North America.
Millions of years ago many prehistoric beasts roamed our area. The village of Hillsborough gained national attention in 1936 with the discovery of the Hillsborough Mastodon. Clifford Fancy, an employee of the Albert County Gypsum Company, unearthed a huge leg bone on the property of the company owner, Conrad Osman while his crew was digging in a swamp area. Although the crew thought it was the remains of a dead moose, Clifford sensed that this was much more than this. They vigorously continued and unearthed more huge skeletal parts of this strange creature. Contact was made with the provincial museum and suddenly Hillsborough was thrust into the national and international limelight. Scientists, anthropologists and media swooped down on the property as Mr. Osman proudly displayed the bones for the cameras. Further expert examination confirmed what Mr. Fancy had suspected - this was a prehistoric wooly mammoth. Scientist surmised that it was probably roaming for food, become entrapped in a boggy swamp and succumbed to exhaustion trying to free itself. The skeleton was moved to a much brighter home at the Saint John Museum where it can be visited today. It still remains one of the most complete set of skeletal remains discovered in Atlantic Canada.
THE SAXBY GALE - More Information by clicking here
The serenity and calm of the mighty bay can at the same time mask the great power of Mother Nature when a storm roars up the Basin. Many ships with crews fell victim to the powers of water and nature in the Bay. On October 4th & 5th of 1869, our area suffered the greatest loss of lives and property, when we were hit by the famous "Saxby Gale". Hardly affecting Nova Scotia it created havoc in communities along New Brunswick's Fundy coast, including inner areas of the Minas Basin and Chignecto Bay. Tides rose more than 58 feet that day which began with a fog in the morning, turning to a warm autumn afternoon. Little did anyone know what destruction would occur through the evening. Although Royal Navy Lieutenant S. M. Saxby, an amateur astronomer, had predicted the great storm ten months before it hit, other experts ignored his writings, saying that gales did not happen that late in the year. Because of the time period, there is not an accurate count of loss of lives in the mighty storm. In the churchyard in Hillsborough, you will see a whole section of tombstones marking the victims of the Saxby "tide", as some called it, because it was the phenomenal tide that took so many lives. The O'Brien family including their six children, of Upper Coverdale all perished. When farmers went down to the marshes, in an attempt to lead their livestock to safety, they were swept away by a great tidal wave when the dykes gave way to the pressure of the Bay of Fundy tides even more powerful with the "fuel" of the storm. Damage occurred from the village of Saint Andrews, where 123 vessels were thrown onto the beaches, to Moncton where the tides rose nine feet over the Harris Wharf into warehouses destroying their contents.
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